


The Love of a Beast

by Ethuilriel



Series: After the End of the World [2]
Category: The Arcana (Visual Novel)
Genre: Angst, Angst with a Happy Ending, Dominant Julian Devorak, F/M, Julian Devorak Route - Reversed Ending, Monsterfucking, Plot What Plot/Porn Without Plot, Rough Sex, Smut, Vaginal Sex
Language: English
Status: In-Progress
Published: 2020-07-29
Updated: 2020-07-29
Packaged: 2021-03-05 22:07:17
Rating: Explicit
Warnings: No Archive Warnings Apply
Chapters: 1
Words: 1,921
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/25582585
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/Ethuilriel/pseuds/Ethuilriel
Summary: "In my dreamIwas doing...things...toyou.”Something deep inside you twinges again. When you speak your voice is unintentionally breathy. “What kind of ‘things?’”His breath hitches. You can’t tell if it’s fear or arousal. His voice is quiet again. “I-I held you down. I slammed you against a wall. I-I bit you hard enough to draw blood.” He pauses, and his voice is tiny. “And Ilikedit. I don’t know what’s become of me. I thought-I thought I knew what I’d become. But lately...lately I’m not so sure anymore.”“Julian,” you begin slowly, “would-would you do those things to—““No!”“If I asked you to?”
Relationships: Apprentice/Julian Devorak, Julian Devorak/Original Female Character(s), Julian Devorak/Reader, Julian Devorak/You
Series: After the End of the World [2]
Series URL: https://archiveofourown.org/series/1854073
Comments: 10
Kudos: 213





	The Love of a Beast

**Author's Note:**

> These scenes take place after the events of my story Talons, but I've made them a separate work since they're pure smut and not part of the other story's plot. You don't need to read Talons to understand this fic: all you need to know is that the apprentice and Julian left the Hanged Raven and have returned to Vesuvia.
> 
> This first chapter starts admittedly slow, but I promise there will be more dom!Julian in later chapters.

Vesuvia has come to love its monster, in its way. You and Julian live at the palace, that shattered, shifting epicenter of the Devil’s ritual, abandoned by Vesuvia’s citizens. Portia, Mazelinka, Nadia, Asra, and even Muriel visit you here, and you sometimes leave to visit them. Julian leaves when the city needs defending, soaring over the streets like a dark angel to strike fear into the hearts of any beast foolish enough to attack the gate. Sometimes he hunts, too, on the outskirts of the city, bringing back deer or boar. When he returns to the palace, you wash the blood from him, treat his injuries, remind him again that he is the man that you love, not a beast or a monster. Sometimes, though, when you watch him soar from the palace tower, shrieking, spiraling, diving through the sky, you realize that he is no longer the man you loved; he is the beast you love. You know he hates to think of himself as a monster, that he needs you to love him as a man; selfishly, sometimes you wish he would let you love him as a beast.

The two of you sleep on a covered balcony, since the interior of the palace changes unpredictably. You’ve carried mattresses, pillows, and blankets out to the balcony and wrap your arms around each other in this soft nest, the sweet scents of the gardens drifting up to the second story. Often, Julian wakes from nightmares. You comfort him, your arms around him, fingers carding through his silky feathers. Sometimes he tells you about his dreams. The worst are about you: memories of watching you die of the plague, or, even worse, dreams in which Julian in his new form hurts you, even kills you. You remind him these are dreams. They are the worst things his mind can conjure, not reality. He has learned to accept your caresses and soft words without pulling away. Tonight, though, something is different.

Julian huddles away from you. When you rest your hand softly on his wing, he flinches away. Your stomach drops. It took so long for him to stop avoiding your touch when you first found him. It’s been so long since he’s retreated from your hand.

“My love? What’s wrong?”

“Ah, a-a nightmare. Another nightmare, hah.”

You keep your hand resting softly on his wing. “Do you want to talk about it?”

“No, ah, no. No, I-I’ll be alright.” He holds himself stiffly, huddled away from you.

“Let me hold you?”

He folds himself more tightly away from you. “I, ah, I’m alright.”

You scratch the skin under the feathers of his back, between his wings, sighing lightly. Something new is going on. “What’s wrong, really? Please?”

His legs twitch. You glance down and—oh. _Oh_.

“Julian,” you laugh. “It was _that_ kind of dream?” You lower your voice seductively. “Would you let me... _help_ you?”

He shakes his head. “No, no, no. It’s not—It’s not.”

You’re confused. Is he embarrassed? The two of you share a bed, in every sense of the phrase. It’s not uncommon for you to find each other awake and eager at odd hours and to finish what a dream started.

“I’ll leave you alone if you prefer, but will you tell me what’s wrong?”

“It _was_ a nightmare,” he repeats. “A _nightmare_.”

“What do you mean?”

The pause is so long you think he won’t answer. Then he says, “It was— _I_ was—bad.”

“...bad?”

His voice is small when he answers. “I...hurt...you.”

“It was a dream, love. Our minds do strange things.”

“But I...I...”

You wait for him to continue. When he doesn’t, you say gently, “You don’t have to tell me. You had a dream.”

He shakes his head, and though he’s still facing away from you, his voice is stronger now. “No. You need to know. I-I had a dream that I-I treated you poorly. Cruelly. While I...fucked you.”

A small smile spreads to your lips. Something twinges deeper within you. “Julian, do you remember the things we used to do, before the Devil changed you? When you used to beg me to hit hard enough to leave handprints on your ass? To call you filthy names? To bite bruises into your skin? It’s no surprise to me that you like those things.”

Since his change, he’s been so afraid of hurting you that your intimacy has been more careful, more restrained. You wondered whether his old tastes would return.

He’s shaking his head, though. “No, no, this was different. In my dream _I_ was doing... _things_...to _you_.”

Something deep inside you twinges again. When you speak your voice is unintentionally breathy. “What kind of ‘things?’”

His breath hitches. You can’t tell if it’s fear or arousal. His voice is quiet again. “I-I held you down. I slammed you against a wall. I-I bit you hard enough to draw blood.” He pauses, and his voice is tiny. “And I _liked_ it. I don’t know what’s become of me. I thought-I thought I knew what I’d become. But lately...lately I’m not so sure anymore.”

“Julian,” you begin slowly, “would-would you do those things to—“

“No!”

“If I asked you to?” There is silence. You swallow. “Julian, hearing you say those things? I-I’d like you to do those things. I want you to be rough with me. I want you to hold me down and slam me against a wall and bite me hard.”

“W-why?”

You actually laugh. “The same reason you liked me to tie you up and spank you and bite you hard. And I know we haven’t done those things...recently...but I’d love to do those things to you, again, if you want.”

“But I-I’m so...strong. How could _I_ do those things to you?”

“You don’t have to,” you say quickly, adding, “and I certainly don’t expect you to do it _now_. But if you want to be rough with me I-I’d like it. A lot.”

You hold your breath as you wait for his answer. Have you gone too far?

“I-I don’t know. It’s—I’ve changed.” He’s huddled into himself, shaking slightly. But you can still see his cock standing stiff.

“You don’t have to be ashamed of what you want. We’ve talked about this. Remember how afraid you were when we first started to touch each other, after I found you again? We were careful, and we went slow, and it was good. Is good.”

“The things I want...when we’re together...I’ve been restraining myself...of course I enjoy myself but sometimes the thoughts I have...”

“You know you can tell me these things, right? I tell you how I want to touch you, how I want you to touch me, and I hope you feel comfortable doing the same.”

“It’s—it’s different, if I _ask_ you to-to be...rough...with me, and you do it, than if I _want_ to be...like that, to you.”

“What if I ask you?”

“I-I don’t know. I’m sorry. I just don’t know if I can do it.”

You run your fingernails down his back. “It’s alright. Here’s what we’re going to do. Right now, I can see you’re aroused, and I am too, so if you’d like, we’re going to fuck each other very gently, just the sort of thing we do normally. Then, sometime in the future, if you’re ready, we’ll talk about other things we might like to do. Does that...sound good to you?”

After a pause, he rolls over onto his back. He’s smiling slightly. His cock twitches. “Alright.”

You lean over him and kiss him, carefully, and he kisses you back. His hands find the back of your head, the points of his talons pressing softly against your scalp. You smile against his mouth. It wasn’t long ago that he was too afraid to touch you. You slide your underclothes off and slip your nightdress over your head. Slowly you straddle him, hands pressing against the feathers of his shoulders, then you lower your hips over his. The conversation has left you dripping, prepared to take him easily, but you hesitate, rubbing your slick against the underside of his cock. He moans as you lower your lips to his neck.

“However you want to have me,” you whisper against his skin, “I want you to take me. You are not a beast, not a monster, but you are more than a man. I want you more than I’ve wanted any man.”

You slide against him and feel him shudder underneath you. You’re both so wet with your slick you have to use your hand to line up his cock with your entrance. You sheath him completely inside you in one long stroke, both gasping.

His claws prick the flesh of your ass as he grasps you, making you shiver.

“I want you to make me yours,” you hiss, rolling your hips. You don’t bother to begin slowly, starting out at a steady, relentless pace. “You deserve every pleasure you desire, and I want to give them to you.”

He’s staring up at you reverently, eyes glassy in the moonlight, breathing heavily. His gaze flicks between your eyes and the place where your bodies meet, where you touch yourself with a finger.

“I want you to use me, to ravish me, to _take_ me.”

He nods rapidly. His hips are bucking up to meet you, rising as you lower yourself, driving him deep inside you. The silky feathers of his hips are wet with you.

He lifts his hand, circling your nipple with a thumb. The sensation sends you almost over the edge and you throw your head back with a cry.

“Your body _does_ things to me,” you gasp. “Your hands, your tongue, oh gods your _cock_ —you feel so _good_.”

You roll your hips as you ride him. His eyes squeeze shut, and you savor the almost pained expression on his face.

“You-you feel good,” he stutters. “You’re-you’re so _wet_ and _hot_ and _soft_ and oh—“

He’s bucking more rapidly now, growing slightly erratic.

“I’m-I’m—ah—“

“Yes,” you hiss. His whimpers send bolts of pleasure through you.

He groans, hips jerking up into you and forcing out a cry of pleasure from you. Grabbing your hips firmly, he speeds up the pace, driving into you relentlessly, and—

You curl over with a shout, feeling yourself squeeze rapidly around him, pulsating with pleasure, and he falls over his edge as you do, crying out in unison as he spends inside you.

Panting, you lean down to kiss his chest gently, then roll off him.

“I suppose,” he says with a laugh, “my dream wasn’t so bad after all.”

You laugh lightly, turning to plant another kiss on his feathered shoulder. 

“The thing is, Julian, I- how do I say this? I want you as you are. Not as a shadow of the man you used to be, but as you’ve become. And if you’ve changed in other ways, beyond the physical? If what you want, what you like, has changed, I want to know. You don’t have to do anything you’re not comfortable with but”—something in you curls pleasurably you say it—“if you want to be _rougher_ with me, I would like that. Very much.”

He glances at you, his face red, swallowing visibly. “I’m so strong, though...”

“We’ll start slow. We’ll talk about it. I trust you.”

He nods. “I trust you too.”


End file.
